Myths and Misconceptions about the French (and France) and Where (at least) Some of Them Come From
Paris! France! Ooh-là-là! The most visited country in the world must have done something right to merit that kind of attention. And of course it has. But there are many other things that it hasn’t done-or kind of does but not in the way we think-or used to do but doesn’t any more. Détrompez-vous! (roughly: Think again!), by checking out the following (incomplete) list. The first misconception is that the French say “Oooooooh-là-là”! Oo is pronounced “oh” in French (alcool [alcohol], for instance, sounds like “al-cole,” not “al-cool”), so at worst the expression should be transcribed and pronounced as “Oh-là-là” and at best not transcribed or pronounced at all, as it’s rather passé. Some similar French and English expressions have totally different meanings: Anglophones say “There, t…Songs about Paris and France
Sooooo many songs have been written about Paris. By some counts there are more than 2800! And sooooo many songs about France. But we never tire of them and listen to them again and again. Below are a few of our favorites (feel free to send us yours and we'll add them to the collection).
Yves Montand sums up the number of songs about Paris with his own:
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about Songs about Paris and France
Tant de poètes ont écrit Des couplets des refrains Sur Paris Que je n'sais plus quoi chanter Pour vanter ta beauté Mon Paris
Did you know there's a Website called My Chanson Française which has classic French song translations? It's a songbook where each page includes an introduction, a YouTube link, and a translation, along with notes clarifying difficult words or passages. You can listen to the YouTube music while scrolling the lyrics and translation below. The website is organized by artist or by song title to make it easy to look up favorites or discover something new. It's a grea…English Books Paris: What’s New at Bill & Rosa’s Book Room
Each month in the Book Room online, we recommend newly published books and for May we've selected some books about Paris from three different points of view. At Bill & Rosa's Book Room we have two whole sections of books about Paris: some in the library to borrow and also some to purchase!
PARCS & JARDINS PARISIENS With more than 500 parks, gardens and squares, Paris is the greenest capital in Europe. The oldest gardens date back to the time of the royals (Places des Vosges), while others are resolutely contemporary (Parc André Citroen), some are mixed (Burin’s Columns in Palais Royale). All are different, depending on whether the gardener saw themselves as an architect organizing nature, or as a painter giving the illusion of his freedom. All are charming, and this book contains the most beautiful. Arnauld Chicurel’s panoramas make the most of unusual angles to enhance this living heritage like never seen before. Bilingual book.
Author: Arnaud …
French postage stamps including the baguette
French Postage Stamps are a view of the history of the country, they also tell you what is going on currently as various events are commemorated. In 2024 obviously there are several sets of Olympic and Para-olympic stamps. There are also two collector sets for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the 150 years of Impressionism. But did you know that 2024 is also the 500th anniversary of the European discovery of New York?
And to commemorate the baguette, listed on the intangible heritage of humanity of UNESCO since 2022, a Scratch 'n sniff stamp was released. A great way to highlight artisanal know-how and the traditional French baguette.On May 16th, the day of Saint-Honoré, patron saint of bakers, the national printing works in Boulazac, near Périgueux, began printing 594,000 copies of a stamp decorated with the French baguette swirled in a bleu blanc rouge ribbon.
Created by La Poste in collaboration with the National Confederation of French Bakery-Pâtisserie, this stamp wa…
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about French postage stamps including the baguette
James Baldwin centennial
James Baldwin was born on August 2 1924 in Harlem, New York, to a young single mother who later married a minister. He found refuge in reading books at the public library and started writing at a young age. Despite a fraught relationship with his stepfather, Baldwin followed in his footsteps and was a preacher for three years (a period that he describes as formative in Go Tell It on the Mountain) and took odd jobs to support himself, his siblings and mother. He eventually moved to Greenwich Village where he worked as a freelance writer and met Richard Wright, who helped him get a grant that would support him. He started getting essays published in national periodicals around this time. Baldwin was unhappy in New York, where he felt like his identity as a black gay man would not be accepted.
In 1948, at age 24, he moved to Paris on another grant and found that France provided reprieve from the discrimination that he had felt in the United States, making it possible for hi…
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about James Baldwin centennial